Planet V
This article is about the planet Planet V. Planet V, also known as the world, is the only known planet orbiting the Sun , and is therefore the only known planet in the Solar System. Planet V is currently home to 10–14 million species of life, including dragons , dragonborn, elves, humans, halflings, and vargan, who depend upon its biosphere and minerals. Planet V's human population is divided among about two hundred sovereign states which interact through diplomacy, conflict, travel, trade and communication media. According to evidence, Planet V was formed around four and a half billion years ago. Within its first billion years, life appeared in its oceans and began to affect its atmosphere and surface, promoting the proliferation of aerobic as well as anaerobic organisms and causing the formation of the atmosphere's ozone layer. This layer and the geomagnetic field block the most life-threatening parts of the Sun's radiation so life was able to flourish on land as well as in water. Since then, the combination of Planet V's distance from the Sun, its physical properties and its geological history have allowed life to persist. Planet V's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. Much of Planet V's surface is covered with water, with the remainder consisting of continents and small islands that together have many lakes and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. Planet V's poles are mostly covered with ice that includes the sea ice of the polar ice packs. Planet V's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the magnetic field, and a thick layer of relatively solid mantle. Planet V gravitationally interacts with other objects in space, especially the Sun and its moons. During one orbit around the Sun, Planet V rotates about its own axis 360 times, or about 0.98 sidereal year. Planet V's axis of rotation is tilted 23.4° away from the perpendicular of its orbital plane, producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface. The two moons Luaere and Azuleka are Planet V's only natural satellites. Both Moons' gravitational interaction with Planet V stimulates ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt, and gradually slows the planet's rotation. Name and Etymology The name "Planet V" comes from the fact that no name currently exists for the planet. The V comes from "Vallhyn," the name of the largest known continent on the planet's surface. Further naming practices might some into being at a later date. Composition and Structure The shape of Planet V approximates an oblate spheroid, a sphere flattened along the axis from pole to pole such that there is a bulge around the equator. This bulge results from the rotation of Planet V, and causes the diameter at the equator to be 43 km (27 mi) larger than the pole-to-pole diameter. Planet V's mass is approximately 5.97×1024 kg. It is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%), with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements. Due to mass segregation, the core region is believed to be primarily composed of iron (88.8%), with smaller amounts of nickel (5.8%), sulfur (4.5%), and less than 1% trace elements. Surface Planet V's terrain varies greatly from place to place. The submerged surface has mountainous features, including a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system, as well as undersea volcanoes, oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus and abyssal plains. The remaining amount not covered by water consists of mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other landforms. The planetary surface undergoes reshaping over geological time periods due to tectonics and erosion. The surface features built up or deformed through plate tectonics are subject to steady weathering and erosion from precipitation, thermal cycles, and chemical effects. Glaciation, coastal erosion, the build-up of coral reefs, and large meteorite impacts also act to reshape the landscape. Altogether, the planet consists of 0.5% ice and frozen surfaces, 9.5% land, and 89.8% water. Due to this, it has a low albedo of around 0.287. Atmosphere See: Atmosphere of Planet V The atmospheric pressure on Planet V's surface averages 101.325 kPa, with a scale height of about 8.5 km. It has a composition of 73% nitrogen and 26% oxygen, with trace amounts of water vapor, argon, carbon dioxide and other gaseous molecules. The height of the troposphere varies with latitude, ranging between 8 km at the poles to 17 km at the equator, with some variation resulting from weather and seasonal factors. Climate As per the Stefan-Boltzmann equation, the effective temperature of the planet if around 281.228 K. Thanks to the planet's low albedo and the greenhouse gases within the atmosphere, the planet's average global temperature is actually higher at 292.328 K. Orbit and Rotation Orbit Planet V orbits the Sun at an average distance of 147,000,000 km (0.98 astonomical units AU), completing a full orbit every 360 days. At this average distance, light travels from the Sun to Planet V in about 8 minutes and 15 seconds. Viewed from a vantage point above the north poles of both the Sun and Planet V, Planet V orbits in a counterclockwise direction about the Sun. Rotation Planet V's rotation period relative to the Sun—its mean solar day—is 86,400 seconds of mean solar time. This solar day is now slightly longer than it was 200 years ago due to tidal acceleration, and each day therefore varies between 0 and 2 milliseconds longer. As viewed from a long way above Planet V's north pole, the planet rotates clockwise. As such, the Sun rised in the west and sets in the east. Axial Tilt and Seasons Due to Planet V's axial tilt, the amount of sunlight reaching any given point on the surface varies over the course of the year. This causes seasonal change in climate, with summer in the northern hemisphere occurring when the North Pole is pointing toward the Sun, and winter taking place when the pole is pointed away. During the summer, the day lasts longer and the Sun climbs higher in the sky. In winter, the climate becomes generally cooler and the days shorter. In northern temperate latitudes, the sun rises north of true west during the summer solstice, and sets north of true east, reversing in the winter. The sun rises south of true west in the summer for the southern temperate zone, and sets south of true east. Above the Arctic Circle, an extreme case is reached where there is no daylight at all for part of the year, up to six months at the North Pole itself, a polar night. In the southern hemisphere the situation is exactly reversed, with the South Pole oriented opposite the direction of the North Pole. Six months later, this pole will experience a midnight sun, a day of 24 hours, again reversing with the South Pole. By astronomical convention, the four seasons are determined by the solstices—the point in the orbit of maximum axial tilt toward or away from the Sun—and the equinoxes, when the direction of the tilt and the direction to the Sun are perpendicular. In the northern hemisphere, winter solstice occurs on about the 15th day of the 11th month, summer solstice is near 14th day of the 5th month, spring equinox is around 15th day of teh 2nd month and autumnal equinox is about the 14th day of the 8th month. In the southern hemisphere, the situation is reversed, with the summer and winter solstices exchanged and the spring and autumnal equinox dates swapped. Planet V's perihelion occurs in the 6th month, and its aphelion in the last month. The changing Planet V–Sun distance causes an increase of about 6.9% in solar energy reaching Planet V at perihelion relative to aphelion. Because the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun at about the same time that Planet V reaches the closest approach to the Sun, the northern hemisphere receives slightly more energy from the Sun than does the southern over the course of a year. This effect is much less significant than the total energy change due to the axial tilt, and most of the excess energy is absorbed by the vast oceans in the northern hemisphere. Geography The current maps only detail two continents, each broken up into smaller kingdoms. The largest of the two continents is Vallhyn. Category:Science Category:Space Category:Planet V